Page 19 of Bound to a Wicked Duke

Steeling himself against the onslaught, Percy drew a deep breath in through his nostrils and turned to face her. She was far closer than expected, and the quickness of his movements caught her off guard. With a soft gasp, she stumbled back, and before he could make a mental decision, his arms were banding around her, preventing the fall.

In return, Madeleine clung to him, her brow furrowing with concern as their eyes met. Slowly, as if not scare him, she traced her fingers from his arm to his face and stroked them along his cheek. He closed his against the sensation of those tiny trails offire and pulled in another centering breath as the thoughts grew worse.

“What is wrong?” she asked

Her voice was too sweet, too pure to hold any form of disguised seduction, and he realized that she was genuinely asking him. He let go of her, his movements brash, and forced some space between them.

“Perhaps you are too innocent for this,” he ground out through his teeth. “You do not understand how the game is played. You must protect your virtue, even from me.” He removed his arm from her grasp, putting some more distance between them.Especially from me,he warned silently.

“That’s not what you said as you walked away from me last night,” she retorted, her brows furrowing with hurt as she crossed her arms, “or were you just high on your horse? Either way, as I said then, I feel nothing for you. You are just Percy. I am nothing but ‘Monkey’ to you. Where is the danger?”

Yes, he had said that, hadn’t he? And he was now paying for it in ways she would never know.

“Iam the danger,” he ground out, “especially when the rules are not obeyed.”

Madeleine’s eyes widened briefly with alarm, but she did not back down from him.

“Then teach me the rules,” she insisted, dropping her arms to her sides. “I want this to work, Percy. Ineedit to. You made a deal with me, and we cannot back out of it now!”

Her willingness to bend to his rules only amplified Percy’s lustful thoughts, and before he could help it, he was closing the distance between them. He dipped his head toward hers, sealing a sweet, long kiss over her lips. It was not at all the emblazoned enmeshment they had found themselves in the night before. This kiss steadier, less insistent—and Percy realized as he pulled away that he had no idea what it meant.

“I—” Madeleine stammered, her cheeks flushed once more, her eyes glazed as he pulled back from her, “I don’t understand.”

“Neither do I,” Percy admitted, feeling his control begin to spin away from him.

He took another step back, letting his hand fall behind him until he found the knob to the library door. He needed to get out of there and now.

“But I will figure it out.”

CHAPTER FIVE

“Percival Hardy,” Madeleine’s mother laughed as she said his name, shaking her head in disbelief. “You know I had always hoped this for you, but I never thought the two of you would actually want to court one another.”

Madeleine pulled her eyes away from the back of Percy’s head, who was walking just a couple of paces away with her brother and father, and she let out a small laugh as she looked at her mother. The three men looked comically similar as they strolled in step with one another, their hands clasped behind their backs as they talked quietly amongst themselves. It was a portrait she had seen many times, what with Percy being their close family friend, but today she found it more amusing than the others.

After their somewhat odd, if not stressful interaction in the library, Madeline had been concerned that he would not join them for promenade after all. She had found his behavior strange, especially for someone normally so confidant andbullish. Her fears were put to bed, however, when he greeted her as warmly as any courter would, and they resumed their ruse.

“You did, Mama?” she asked, surprised at her mother’s confession. “I had no idea.”

Her Mother’s smile grew wider, and she lifted a single shoulder in a somewhat sassy shrug.

“I did not want to push you, darling,” she replied sincerely. “I knew your father would do that soon enough, so I kept my opinion to myself. I will tell you now, though, that when your father came to deliver the news to me, I was positively elated.”

Madeleine forced another smile as a sliver of guilt slid through her heart. She knew by taking on this ruse that she would be fooling theton,and she felt no remorse for that. Fooling her mother, though… she had not thought of how it would affect her. She would be genuinely heartbroken when this was all over. Not just for Madeleine but for the boy she’d always loved as a second son.

“I am so very glad we have your blessing, Mama,” she forced herself to say sweetly.

“You must tell me everything,” her mother insisted, her excitement growing as she looped her arm through Madeleine’s and pressed her close.

“How did this come about? What did he say? Did you know you had feelings for him all this time? Or did they come about just the other night at the ball?”

Madeleine’s mind scrambled to formulate an answer, but all she was rewarded with was memories of her kiss last night with Percy. Her lips burned even now as she thought of how he had had wholly taken possession of her—how she had handed herself so willingly over to him.

As she floundered for a story to tell that would not raise any questions, her father, unknowingly and blessedly, came to her rescue.

“Darling,” he called back to his wife, stopping their small party, “I see Corrin and Brimsworth. We’re going to cut off for a moment. Would you wait for us?”

“Of course, my love,” she replied warmly, bringing herself and Madeleine to a stop.

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